Thursday, October 14, 2004

Mr. Left Hand, Meet Mr. Right Hand

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's president said in an interview published Thursday that the Jan. 31 date for Iraqi elections is 'not sacred' and the vote could be postponed if if a lack of security threatens the fairness of balloting.

Mr. Allawi's visits to the White House and Capitol Hill followed earlier consultations at the United Nations in New York – all designed to showcase the new Iraqi leader and the president just six weeks before the Nov. 2 election.

Their message was in lock step: Despite the violence in Iraq – no matter how rampant it might appear – democracy is on track.

"Elections will occur in Iraq, on time in January," Mr. Allawi told Congress, "because Iraqis want elections on time."

And Mr. Bush, answering reporters' questions with Mr. Allawi, followed up on a similar track.

"I'm not the expert on how the Iraqi people think because I live in America, which is nice, safe and secure," Mr. Bush said, turning to the prime minister. "But I talk to this man."

In other news from Iraq...four Americans were among those killed when some sneaky insurgent bastard(s) sneakily snuck a couple of bombs into the Green Cocoon. Now, I'm not one to make light of tragedies like this. I'm really not. Incidents like this point out the absolute futility of BushCo trying to proclaim that "freedom is on the march". That this happened within the confines of the fortified government controlled area of Baghdad should be a great concern to all involved. It's been pretty clear to me since the time this whole insurgency thing started that a lot of the success of the insurgency is a direct result of them having players on the "inside". The entire vetting process for Iraqi soldiers, officers, and police was cursory, at best. I think it's safe to say that the Iraqi ranks are rife with corruption and guardsmen playing both sides of the street.

And in still other Iraq action buried beneath the media outrage of the Green Cocoon rubble, 2 4 U.S. soldiers were killed in separate incidents today in Iraq. What started out looking like a reasonably "calm" month (by Iraq definitions, anyway) has reignited in the last few days. Since yesterday, 8 10 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, bringing the total to 27 this month and 1087 1089 total since the start of the war.